How to help the 400,000 workers who want to return to their jobs but can’t

Question: what’s a way of getting up to 400,000 willing workers into the workforce without importing them from abroad? The clue is that these are carers of elderly or disabled dependents who left paid employment because they couldn’t combine work with their responsibilities. If they were women with very young children, there would be practically nothing the government wouldn’t throw at them to enable them to stay in work – and I’m not even sure that’s wise, certainly with pre-school age toddlers. But these are people who could work, who want to work, but can’t work because it’s too difficult financially and practically. 

And the answer? I refer you to a new policy document, Creating a Britain that Works and Cares, published today by the Centre for Social Justice, which suggests some relatively simple, cost effective ways of enabling people to look after people they love in their own home and to be economically and fiscally productive while they’re at it.

The larger recommendations range from the sensible provision of a one-stop hub for prospective carers in hospitals and surgeries to help people navigate the complex grant system, to the Department for Work and Pensions doing more to advertise the grants that are in fact available.